Approval Processes enable you to streamline important business processes by creating multi-step approvals for projects, tasks, and issues.

Each approval process corresponds with a status option in the Workfront system. When you change the status of a work item, an attached approval for that status requires the status change to be confirmed before the new status can be assigned to the item.

By default, you as the system administrator can configure global approval processes that can be applied to any project, task, or issue throughout the Workfront system. Creating global approval processes can help to provide consistency around processes in your organization. (Depending on how access levels have been configured in the Workfront system, other users might also have this ability.)

You can create an approval process beforehand only for projects, tasks, and issues. The approval can then be associated with projects, tasks, and issues after they are created. For more information about associating an existing approval process with projects, tasks, or issues, see "Associating a New or Existing Approval Process with Work."

To create an approval process for a project, task, or issue:

Click Setup, located in the upper-right corner of the page.

Expand Processes, then click Approvals.

Click the Project Approvals, Task Approvals, or Issue Approvals tab, depending on the type of approval you want to create.

Description: Specify a description of the approval process. This description is displayed in the Approvals section in the Setup area next to the approval name.

Is Active: Select this checkbox if you want the approval process to be active. Other users can find this approval and attach it to projects, tasks, or issues when creating or editing projects, tasks, or issues. Inactive approval processes cannot be attached to other objects. This is enabled by default.

Start Approval Process when the status is set to: Select the status that triggers the approval process. When the project, task, or issue is updated to the status that you select, the approval process is started.The same status cannot be selected for multiple approval paths.Only system-wide statuses are available to use. Statuses that are available only for specific groups cannot be selected.

Stage Name: (Optional) Specify a name describing the first stage of the approval process. If you do not specify a stage name, the default name is Stage 1.

Approvers: Begin typing the name of the user, team, or job role that you want to designate as an approver for this stage, then click the name when it appears in the drop-down list. You can also designate an individual in a role as an approver. For example, a Project Owner, Project Sponsor, Portfolio Owner, Program Owner, or Manager can be assigned as an approver. These options automatically appear when you begin typing.Repeat this process to add multiple approvers to the stage. A single stage can include a combination of users, teams, and job roles as approvers. There is no limit to the number of approvers you can add to a single stage.IMPORTANT When you assign job roles as approvers, all users associated with that job role that are also on the project team can see the pending approval in their Approvals tab. As soon as one of the users approves or rejects the item, the approval is no longer listed in their Approvals tab. For more information about the project team, see "Understanding the Project Team."When you assign a team as an approver, all users in that team can see the pending approval in their Approvals tab. As soon as one of the users on the team approves or rejects the item, the approval is no longer listed in the Approvals tab.

Only one decision required (conditional): When you configure multiple approvers for a single stage, this field displays. Select this option if any of the identified resources can approve or reject the work. When this option is unselected, all of the identified approvers must approve or reject the stage before the item leaves the approval stage. The order in which the approval is granted is irrelevant. When a team is designated as an approver, any member of the team can grant or reject the approval.

(Optional) Click Add Stage to add an additional stage to the approval process.After the previous stage is approved, the approval process continues to the next stage.Add a stage name and approvers to the stage, as described above.Repeat this step to add multiple stages to the approval process. [! there is no limit to how many stages you can have in one approval?! ]

In the If Rejected drop-down list, select the action you want to take if the approval path is rejected at any stage of the process:

Create an issue (available only for Project and Task approvals)An issue is created in the project or task where the approval process is running. The default assigned resource on the task, or the owner of the project is assigned to the issue. By default, the name of the issue created is Approval Rejected (<Project or Task Name>).

Set the status to the previous status by selecting the Previous Status option from the drop-down list.The status of the project, task, or issue is reverted to the previous status prior to activating the approval process.

Set the status to another statusThe status of the project, task, or issue is set to the status you select in the drop-down list. Options include default statuses and any custom statuses added to your Workfront system.

(Optional) Click Add Path to add an additional path to the approval process. The new path must be associated with another status. You cannot have two paths for the same status on the same item. Repeat from the Start Approval Process when the status is set to: field in Step 5 to Step 7 todefine the new path.The path triggers when the item is updated to show the selected status.

Click Save.

Now that the approval process is created, continue with any of the following:

Create another approval process that is triggered if this approval process is rejected and the item is placed in another status.Creating an approval process that begins when another is rejected enables you to link approval processes together.

Understanding What Happens When an Approval is Rejected

When you approve an item, it will be placed automatically in the status associated with the Approval Path.

When you reject an item, you have a choice of which status to associate the item with during the approval process.

For example, you can have a Task Approval Process called "Article Creation," and that process has a Path which is associated with the In Progress task status. You could have the following stages within that Approval Path:

Approval process is started when the task status is set to In Progress.

You can send the object back to its original status (before it was placed in the status associated with the Approval Path).Within the approval process, if the If Rejected option is configured to set the status to Previous Status, then the task status will be set to New (the status before it became In Progress) if the task is rejected during any of the three stages.

You can select a different status to send the object to.If the If Rejected option is configured to set the status to On Hold, for example, then the task status will be set to On Hold if the task is rejected, during any of the three stages.

NOTE You might have two users approving the first two stages, but if the third user rejects it, the approval process must either start over from the previous status, or it can be by-passed completely, if the status changes into a different status.

Modifying an Existing Global Approval Process

When you modify an existing global approval process after it is created, the modifications you make are applied to all approval processes throughout the Workfront system that are already associated with objects . This includes instances when the approval process has already started.

When the approval has already started, the objects with that approval process attached have the approvals reset and the approvers have to start the approval process again.

When you edit the following in an existing approval process in the Setup area, the approval processes already associated with objects are reset:

Add a new approver to the current approval stage

When you edit the following in an existing approval process in the Setup area, the approval processes already associated with objects are not reset:

Add a stage beyond the current stage

Add an additional approver before the current stage

To modify an existing global approval process:

Click Setup, located in the upper-right corner of the page.

Expand Processes, then click Approvals.

Click the Project Approvals, Task Approvals, or Issue Approvals tab, depending on the type of approval you want to modify.

Click the name of the approval you want to modify.The Edit Approval Process dialog box is displayed.

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The documentation was not clear. There was information missing on how to get the approval process done correctly. There was one step that was not mentioned in the write-up on getting the task or issue created first and trigger the approval to work. When adding tasks at the bottom, you are limited to what information you can fill out. You were adding the tasks, it was set to new and then you were adding the approval process after the fact that the status was in New so it wouldn't be triggering the approval. By adding the tasks at the top, you can fully fill out the task information, add the approval process and then its saved as New. This then triggers the New status and the approval process is started. This should be added into the documentation and also create a video on this.